[rtpg]

What is the magical problem with processed foods? It’s not like the body can tell if something was smooshed by a machine or by my mouth.

I kinda believe it but it’s real “chemicals!!” sort of generality. I can imagine a granola bar being less bad than like… my grandma’s paté

[a3n]

One thing about processed foods is that they're usually based on refined grains, i.e. preprocessed carbs. Your body sucks up these carbs too quickly, resulting in insulin resistance and pancreatic failure.

Look down the aisles of a store. If it's in a box, or a bag, it's probably based on processed carbs.

Disclosure: Biased diabetic who has struggled with management, and now "strictly" (with the best of intentions) limits processed carbs. Bread of any kind, especially. Toss the hamburger bun, for example. And it's worked, with help from meds.

[tovej]

Processed foods are chemically altered for longer shelf-life. Heavily processed foods have a very homogeneous substance, which means they have fewer nutrients that the body needs. To top it off, the substances they _do_ contain are unhealthy, and are processed faster, because the body has to do less work to separate the nutrients (because the nutrients are already... processed). Because the body does less work, we also burn less energy digesting the food. => Calorie intake is higher & calorie consumption is lower

https://www.lhsfna.org/index.cfm/lifelines/may-2019/the-many...

[wombatmobile]

> What is the magical problem with processed foods?

It's not that it's "processed" necessarily. Your grandmother processes fresh pumpkin to turn it into pumpkin soup, and that's still healthy, nutritious, and delicious.

The problem with food from Cargill. Nestle, Pepsico, Kraft, Unilever, Kellog, General Mills and the like is the added sugar, added fat, and added salt in every can, box, jar, bottle and packet they sell in supermarkets.

Read the labels. They'll tell you how much sugar, fat and salt is in every 100g of product.

If its more than 2g of sugar per 100g, you're being manipulated to crave and buy more.

Check the ketchup and the breakfast cereal labels. Compare the sugar in those to the sugar in Coke. What do you find?

How much sugar is listed in the label for your granola bar?

[slothtrop]

Between stripping away all fiber and phytonutrients/prebiotics (which aren't returned in "enriched" products), and the added fat that tends to throw off the omega 3/6 balance, and the sugar, and the salt, there are negative outcomes. Typically are high calorie with low satiety, and yields a high insulin response to boot. Processed meats also bad owing to nitrates but also salt and very high saturated fat typically paired with refined carbohydrates. Saturated fat in itself appears to only raise total cholesterol levels (considered a risk by health authorities but some disagree), but when paired with sugar and carbs the ldl/hdl profile worsens and CVD risk heightens.

[bingohbangoh]

One wonders where the line is drawn with processed foods as well.

Take sausages. These have been around for ages but are, technically, processed. Are these now bad? They seem to pass the lindy test.

[mikea1]

> Take sausages

Not a great example to make your point because processed meats (specifically, cured meats) are carcinogenic. [0]

> Are these now bad?

Colorectal cancer has always been bad. The difference is that we have more data now.

If you don’t change your assumptions and biases with new data, you will be stuck in the past. Blood letting would have passed the lindy test throughout the 18th century.

[0] https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/11/03/repo...

[ac29]

> Colorectal cancer has always been bad. The difference is that we have more data now.

Your linked source claims processed meats can cause a 18% increased incidence of colorectal cancer. The CDC [0] says rates of those cancers are 36.5 per 100,000, or 0.03%. Since some of those people undoubtedly eat processed meat, lets assume the cancer rate is 0.025% for people who don't eat processed meats.

For me, those numbers really dont move the needle - its highly unlikely to get colorectal cancer and abstaining from processed meats doesnt really change the rate much at all. There are probably other good arguments in favor of not eating these foods, but cancer doesnt appear to be one of them.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/colorectal/statistics/index.htm

[Zababa]

If you like eating processed meat, your energy is probably better spent having good prevention around colorectal cancer than eating less processed meat.

[chii]

> where the line is

high salt and/or sugar content foods, whether processed or not, is probably not great for you.

It's just that "processed foods" usually have extra flavourings added (such as salt) to enhance it, for sale purposes.

So instead of targeting processed foods, the targeting for healthy eating should be portion size and amount, followed by freshness.

[dragontamer]

Canned or frozen can contain more nutrients because of the preservation process though. Fresh foods lose nutrients as they are shipped around.

The vitamins may have leached into the water, but toss that water into a soup and you're good.

I don't think freshness matters much at all. Flour certainly doesn't need to be fresh to make good bread.

[bobobob420]

Fresh pasta vs store bought? Worlds of difference. When I lived in Europe the quality of produce and dairy blew me away compared to what we were eating in America. Tons of flavor in fresh natural produce.

[orwin]

There is a difference between fresh in producer market and fresh in a supermarket. Supermarket canned tomatoes (with no added salt, i got surprised once) are better, more ripe than supermarket fresh tomatoes. This extend to a lot of canned food (as long as the process is just food+water in bain-marie or similar).

[dragontamer]

Indeed. And plenty of frozen options too, if that's your preference.

People underrate canned veggies in regards to healthy eating. They're really not bad at all from a health perspective, and can often taste very fresh.

Pineapples, pears, peaches are great canned. Artichoke, corn, beans, string beans, spinach, and tomatoes are also good canned products in my experience.

I'm not hating on fresh: big leafy Romaine Lettuce is best fresh, as are onions. But certain foods hold really well in a can, and its extremely convenient to mix-and-match storage strategies. (Ex: Use that Romaine Lettuce for salads this week, and canned corn next week)

[dragontamer]

What is "fresh pasta"? That flour's been sitting in my pantry for months!

Yes, fresh eggs taste better. But fresh flour? Not really. grains, beans, flour, rice... these "preserved" foods can last months or even well into a year or longer.

[ubercow13]

If by store bought you mean dry, dry pasta is not ‘worse’ than fresh pasta, it is just suited to different dishes

[slightwinder]

> It’s not like the body can tell if something was smooshed by a machine or by my mouth.

One obvious difference is time and fineness. The machine will grind it significant smaller than your teethes. And processed meat from machines has far longer time to sit and change.

Some other reasons are that processed food is usually not just the meat itself. but a mass that is mixed and enriched with several other elements. And in the money-driven food-industry they are usually not the most healthy things.

[hannob]

I think the "processed food" guidance is widely misunderstood.

From what I gather you shouldn't consider that as a strict rule. It's more a rule of tendencies. Less processed food tends to have more fiber, less sugar, less calorie density. There are exceptions, and obviously it's sometimes debatable what counts as "more processed".

But despite these inaccuracies, it's probably a good simple guidance in a field where there's a lot of uncertainty.

[saurik]

FWIW, I am pretty sure "[your] grandma's pâté" is also a "processed food".